Obama: 'Climate Change Is A Fact'

President Obama on Tuesday said that he has told his administration to work toward new standards on carbon pollution, arguing against critics who doubt the science of climate change.

"The shift to a cleaner energy economy won’t happen overnight, and it will require tough choices along the way. But the debate is settled. Climate change is a fact," he said in his State of the Union address. "And when our children’s children look us in the eye and ask if we did all we could to leave them a safer, more stable world, with new sources of energy, I want us to be able to say yes, we did."

Obama touted the U.S.'s record on reducing carbon emissions, but said that the country could to more to curb climate change.

"Over the past eight years, the United States has reduced our total carbon pollution more than any other nation on Earth. But we have to act with more urgency – because a changing climate is already harming western communities struggling with drought, and coastal cities dealing with floods," he said. "That’s why I directed my administration to work with states, utilities, and others to set new standards on the amount of carbon pollution our power plants are allowed to dump into the air."